Overview

• A D.C. Circuit panel held that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin properly rescinded the July 2024 agreement that would have spared Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-defendants from the death penalty.
• The ruling restores the military commissions’ authority to seek capital punishment for Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.
• Victims’ families had opposed the original deal offering life sentences, arguing that the suspected plotters deserved a full military trial for accountability.
• No trial dates have been scheduled at Guantanamo Bay, and litigants are expected to contest the commissions’ next procedural steps.
• The decision underscores ongoing disputes over executive authority and the balance between victims’ justice and plea bargaining in wartime tribunals.